Adwords Click Reports

How accurate are they?

[moose606]

So far this month, my Adwords account shows I have paid for 9154 clicks. However, I use a customer tracking(using cookies) on my website, and only show 2485 visitors so far this month. According to Adwords, I have been getting more clickthrus in the last few months, however my tracking doesn't show this, nor have my sales or conversions increased. The only thing that has increased is my American Express Bill! Could this be fraudulent clicks, or an error in their reporting system. This has been going on for the last 2 months. Anyone else have this problem lately?

[Robino]

One problem:
Many users have cookies disabled.

Another:
Your stats package.

AdWords reporting is very accurate.

[chrisk999]

I have noticed a similar thing recently - my server logs (exact tracking url from adwords) are about 20% lower volume than adwords claims.

I thought perhaps some people have a slow connection, get successfully redirected through google's click stats, but then give up before reaching my site?

My landing page is on quick load-balanced hosting, so my idea shouldn't really happen...?

[AdWordsAdvisor]

One problem:
Many users have cookies disabled.

Another:
Your stats package.

Other things to keep in mind:

* Time discrepancies between different tracking programs can throw you off. AdWords reports are US Pacific Standard Time.

* Server delays - stats in your account run slightly behind (up to three hours behind under normal circumstances).

* Your system may filter out visits from your own IP address, while AdWords does not.

* Some Internet Service Providers assign a single IP address to more than one user. (In some cases, many more than one.)

AWA

[moose606]

Thank you Robino, I had not even thought of visitors having cookies turned off. And thank you AdWordsAdvisor. I am thinking of just having a landing page for google adwords, and two choices for visitors, Dial up and Broadband/DSl. This might help to get customers to the site, rather that having some of them bail while loading (Site is graphical by nature). This should help to get better tracking of visitors, and more conversions. Thanks again.